


The Confidence of Healing

by RobinPlaysTrumpet15



Series: Obi-Wan "The Therapist" Kenobi and How He Changed Everything [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Appropriate Use of the Force, Blood and Gore, Death, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Healing, Hopeful Ending, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Mentions of Blood, Minor Character Death, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Pain, Post-Episode: s04e10 Carnage of Krell, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22215253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinPlaysTrumpet15/pseuds/RobinPlaysTrumpet15
Summary: The 212th runs into some problems on a mission to recon a droid foundry. The 501st comes to their aid.Canon Divergence.Set Post S4xE10 - The Carnage of Krell
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Obi-Wan "The Therapist" Kenobi and How He Changed Everything [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584874
Comments: 26
Kudos: 1052





	The Confidence of Healing

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This story has moments where it mentions things like death, blood, and injury. If these things are a trigger for you, or you just don't like to read about them, you might not want to read this story. Stay safe, guys.
> 
> With that out of the way, I have worked on this for the past couple of days and it's finally finished. It's the longest installment in this series so far and is super plot heavy. This story is finally moving along, people. Anyway, I hope you like it!

Within a day, if any trooper hadn’t seen the holo, it was considered a crying shame. Copies of it were also blazing their way through the 501st about as fast as they could.

Anakin was blowing up Obi-Wan’s comm at any free given moment, demanding to know what had changed and what they were doing differently. Obi-Wan was staying particularly mute on the subject, just smirking knowingly every time his former padawan’s face appeared in a hologram. It was driving the younger man insane, surely. And Obi-Wan wasn’t petty man, but oh, did his padawan deserve just a taste of his own medicine.

Ahsoka had also asked what Obi-Wan was up to, but he had yet to actually answer her.

Before he knew it though, they were being sent off on another mission.

There was some relatively unknown neutral planet out in the middle rim that intelligence said had a droid foundry on it. If the information was good, this was just the chance they’d been looking for to deal a heavy blow to the Separatist army. If there was any chance of taking out possibly hundreds of thousands of battle droids before they could even be built, they were going to take it.

Unfortunately, the intelligence also said that the inhabitants of the planet hadn’t been heard from in close to five months. No one had any guesses for what had happened to them or where they might have gone, though Obi-Wan had a few thoughts. He was trying not to think too hard about it, though instructed the Medkits Platoon, the majority of whom would be joining them on the ground, to bring more supplies than usual.

Obi-Wan sat quietly with Cody in the mess hall, reading carefully over any report available about the planet.

It was called Udo and the dominant species of the planet seemed to be the Temarus. The limited pictures Obi-Wan could find showed them on all fours, scaled and heavily armored on their backs. They were capable of speaking Basic, but communicated with each other mostly in a sixth-sense, nonverbal type of way.

Suddenly, for the third time that day alone, his communicator was lighting up and chirping at him. He would bet good money that it was Anakin on the other end of the line.

Sure enough, the young man’s voice came through as soon as Obi-Wan answered.

_“Are you sure you won’t need any help on this mission?”_

“Yes, Anakin,” he sighed, turning his eyes back to the datapad in his other hand. “We will have it perfectly under control.”

_“It wouldn’t hurt to have some help-”_

“Anakin, the 212th has some of the highest success rates in the entire GAR. It’s just a droid foundry. We’ll probably be in and out to do recon and the Council will decide what to do from there. We can handle it.”

There was an audible huffy sigh from the other end of the line. _“Yeah… but, I have a bad feeling about it, Master.”_

Obi-Wan’s face softened.

“We’ll be fine, padawan mine. We’ll be done before you know it and you’ll be off on some other mission that you will claim was much more exciting than this one. But if it makes you feel better, I will be sure to contact you if we fall into trouble.”

_“Alright, I guess you’re right.”_

“I generally am,” Obi-Wan replied with a self-confident smirk.

“Is it not a virtue of the Jedi to temper your pride-” Cody muttered, a quirk of his lips curving into his own smirk.

Obi-Wan’s glare at his commander was not as heated as he supposed it should be.

“Oh, you hush.”

Obi-Wan scowled at the snickers filtering through the staticky comm.

_“Then will you please tell me what started this dance off?”_ Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, knowing this question was coming. _“Because way too many of my troops have been attempting to find the ‘perfect song’ to use to get back at all of you.”_

Don’t ask him how or when, but Obi-Wan suddenly found himself absolutely howling with laughter, face down on the table. Cody was at his side, no better. His face was flushed in what Obi-Wan knew was embarrassment, but he was still laughing exactly the way he hadn’t in the general’s quarters the other day after that whole incident. So the Jedi Master would count this as a win.

_“This isn’t funny!”_

“Of- of course it is!” he countered, forcing out the words between peels of laughter. “It’s hilarious and you absolutely deserve this.”

_“Are you going to take pity on me any time soon?”_

“Oh, probably,” Obi-Wan conceded, collecting himself back into his perfect Jedi General facade. “But not right now, to be sure.”

_“Uhhg, fine!”_ Anakin was silent a moment. _“Good luck on your mission, Master.”_

Obi-Wan softened for him again. Anakin would always be Anakin, and he drove him straight up the wall sometimes, but no matter what, he still loved the kid. (He’d always be a kid to Obi-Wan.)

“Thank you, Ani. I will let you know when we are on our way home.”

_“You better. Over and out.”_

The man sat there a moment, quiet, smiling absently down at his wrist as if he could see his former padawan.

“Sir?” Cody ventured, calm now as well. “Why are you acting like there’s some big secret behind the holo you took? We didn’t even know you were there.”

Obi-Wan fixed his blue eyes on his commander, smiling mischievously. “Well, we might know that. But Anakin doesn’t. And I’m perfectly happy to keep him guessing for the time being.”

Cody smiled then too.

“Yes, Sir.”

The Jedi turned back to his forgotten datapad, drawing in a deep sigh.

“Well, let’s finish up this reading. We’ll brief the troops after before we hit ground.”

Cody nodded, returning his attention back to the data in front of him.

*

Just staring at Udo from the bridge of the _Negotiator_ , Obi-Wan had to admit that perhaps Anakin had had a point. Even the sight of the small, mostly green planet was giving him a bad feeling. Perhaps the 501st should have accompanied them here.

The Force stirred restlessly around the planet. It was filled with an odd silence, a certain sort of mourning that did not come from other living beings. As if the Force itself was saddened.

“Sir?” Cody’s voice shook him from his thoughts. “The transports have been loaded. Ghost and Ocean Companies are ready to go.”

Obi-Wan nodded.

“The Medkits?”

“The Shadowlings, Angels’ Wings, and Ground Squad are ready to go too.”

“Good,” he said, turning and following his commander off the bridge. “Let’s get to it then, Commander.”

Obi-Wan’s bad feeling only increased the closer to the planet’s surface they got.

Their transports landed in one of the vegetation-free zones. It was all soft, light brown dirt, ringed in a bright green grass. The fauna was low to the ground, no higher than Obi-Wan hips at any given point, and there didn’t seem to be many trees (or tree-like plants) around for cover or land-marks.

Something was wrong with this place…

“Orders, General?”

He blinked, mentally shaking off the feeling. It was clawing its way into his chest and setting his heart to quaking.

“The droid foundry shouldn’t be more than 40 klicks that way,” he said, gesturing with two fingers off to their left, North-West of their position. “A full rotation on this planet should be about eighteen hours, and daylight only lasts for nine of them. And according to this,” he looked down at his wrist, bringing up a holoscreen and scanning through a few of the readings, “we only have seven left.”

“We could probably just about make it before nightfall,” Cody said, clearly already steeling himself for a long march. It certainly wouldn’t be the longest they’ve ever done (just ask the 501st about the twelve straight hours they marched on Umbara), but that didn’t mean it would be pleasant. And none of this accounted for stopping or whatever they might find or come across on their way towards the foundry.

“Alright, let’s move out, Commander. Don’t want to lose anymore daylight.”

Cody gave a sharp nod from beneath his helmet and turned, calling directions to the troops.

*

Marching wasn’t the hard part. No, what was hard was what they found not three klicks into the hike.

Obi-Wan had been wrong. There were trees. They found a grouping of them all close together, perhaps a twenty foot diameter space of wooded ground.

The trees sang of the Force’s sadness and it settled itself right on top of Obi-Wan’s diaphragm.

He swallowed, continuing to approach, though he made a gesture for their troops to slow down.

The first tree he came to was tall, reaching probably thirty or fourty feet into the air. Obi-Wan looked it up and down, gaging it. The bark was an odd, greenish brown and the leaves themselves resembled a rose-gold hue. What really caught his eye was the black, charred mark that sat a foot higher than Obi-Wan’s head.

A blaster shot.

“Cody,” he called over his shoulder, eyes still on the charred bark.

The commander stepped up to his side.

“Yes, Sir?”

“We’re going to find out who was shooting at what in here.”

He heard Cody respond with an affirmative before finally stepping forward into the wooded space.

The air in there was different. It was dense and heavy, but not in a muggy way. An awful, rotting smell ladened the air around them. He found more blaster marks on more trees, the charred spots becoming more and more frequent the further in they got.

It only took a few steps before they found their way into the middle of the space. There were no trees there, where a clear pool of water glinted cheerfully in the sunlight.

It was the only thing doing anything even remotely cheerful.

Four or five scaled and lizard-like bodies littered the soft ground. Obi-Wan could almost recognize them as the Temarus, though unlike the pictures he’d seen, these were near horrific to look at. The armored scales of their backs were missing in patches, ripped or clipped off somehow. The portions that remained were melted through as if someone had repeated shot in one spot.

Someone, likely the Separatist droids, had killed the Temarus. Their scales were poached afterwards.

Obi-Wan nearly gagged, horrified at the sight.

The Force writhed in grief and pain. The feeling of it was leeching in beneath his skin, dragging breath from his lungs.

“Kriff…” he heard Cody swear as the man approached one of the Temarus. “Why would the Seppies go to the effort…

“I don’t know…” he whispered. He swallowed against the burning in his throat. “But look around. See what you can find.”

“Over here!” another trooper called.

Obi-Wan turned to him, finding the clone kneeling before a large dug-out hole in the ground. He stepped carefully towards it, kneeling down next to the trooper and peering inside.

He gasped, trying to cover the sound with a cough. A bomb had clearly gone off in the dark space. The hole was filled with the scattered remains of Temarus.

Obi-Wan couldn’t look anymore.

“Never mind,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

“Sir?” Cody asked.

“Now, Commander,” he ordered, harsher than he thought he’d ever been with his troops. He would feel bad about it later. But for now… he couldn’t take the loss the Force was screaming with. Perhaps there was something in this oasis that could tell them anything about their target, but it didn’t matter. This was just too much.

Cody and the other trooper fell into step behind him, picking their way back through the blaster-marked trees to rejoin the troops.

Obi-Wan already knew he’d be happy to get off this planet.

*

In the six more hours they marched, they came across five more pods of the Temarus. Whether they were in another little oasis fed by underground spring or small, curling stream, or just out in burned out spaces of fauna, every single one was dead, stripped of their clearly coveted hard outer scales.

Obi-Wan was choking on the heaviness in the Force by the time the sun had set and they stopped for a rest. He collapsed as if made of lead onto the nearest free spot on the ground. Thankfully the troops seemed to be doing better than their general, but it was such a small comfort in the wake of everything else. He was becoming concerned that this had happened all over the planet, not just the zone they were in.

Another body settled down beside him. Cody’s Force signature sung a certain song of peace into the air at his side as he reached up and pulled the white and yellow helmet off his head. The feeling brought the barest hint of a smile to Obi-Wan’s face.

“Hello, Cody,” he greeted tiredly.

“Sir,” came the familiar response.

He didn’t say anything more.

Obi-Wan curled his knees up to his chest, resting his head into his arms. Force, was he tired. He shouldn’t be. The clock at his wrist would claim that it was only 1600 standard hours or something just as reasonable. Marching wasn’t fun but it certainly wasn’t the most tiring thing in the world. And it wasn’t nearly late enough to feel as tired as he did.

“General,” Cody started softly. He kept his tone low, clearly meant only for Obi-Wan.

“Yes?”

“I don’t really understand any of this Force stuff, but Sir, even I can feel how much this place is weighing on you.”

Obi-Wan didn’t look up or open his eyes. He thought he might feel the vague sting of tears behind his eyelids, but he pushed it away.

“Sir, if you need to pull back-”

Obi-Wan shook his head against his arm.

“I’ll be fine, Cody. It’s just this… something happened here, and… I don’t know quite how to explain it. The Force is _grieving_ , Cody.”

A trickle of concern dripped through Cody’s resonance. Obi-Wan bit back the whine he would have let out had he still been a padawan.  
“Obi-Wan,” the commander said, placing a hand firmly on the Jedi’s shoulder. “Permission to-”

“Granted.” He didn’t care what Cody was about to ask.

“Look at me, please.”

Slowly, and a little reluctantly, Obi-Wan lifted his head just enough to peek over his bicep at the man. Bright, caring brown eyes met his.

“I’m telling you right now that the rules you’ve made? They apply to you, too. Ah, no-” he cut Obi-Wan off before he could start to argue, “I recognize you haven’t done anything yet. But you started this and you’re not getting out of it. If you need something, if you need help or a minute or whatever, I don’t care that you’re the superior officer. We’re here for you, too.”

Obi-Wan sat, staring at Cody with sad, tired blue eyes. They were silent together a moment as Cody stared right back, his expression genuine and insistent.

“Understood?”

The Jedi Master swallowed. His mouth tipped up in a smile that felt a little lighter than the world around them.

“Understood.”

Cody gave a firm, decisive nod. “Good.”

Obi-Wan was just about to go back to hiding in the darkness of his arms (nevermind that there was near darkness around them already) when the man at his side spoke again.

“So… is there anything I can do to help?”

Obi-Wan thought to himself, sitting peacefully by his commander’s side. He revelled in their little bubble of stillness, mostly untouched by the pressing, lingering sense of death all around them. He’d never had much cause to notice before, and he’d only felt it missing a few times, but Cody’s presence brought a gentle calmness and serenity in their quiet moments of existing together as people.

“Off the record?” he asked. He didn’t want to be a general right that moment. He just wanted to be himself. Just Obi-Wan talking to Cody.

“Sure,” his friend responded without hesitation.

“It’s silly, but… stay close to me. You’re- you- you help. It’s not so heavy with you next to me,” he admitted.

Cody’s eyes gave away how shocked he seemed for no longer than a half a second, but then it was quickly smoothed away with an understanding smile.

“Of course. Whenever possible,” he promised.

Obi-Wan smiled his first genuine smile of the mission.

“Thank you, Cody.”

“Any time, Obi-Wan.”

*

He didn’t want to tell the troops to sleep because truly, who was ready to sleep at this point? But he also recognized that they wouldn’t get much recon done in the pitch blackness that was Udo’s night cycles. There wasn’t any moon to light up the world even a little bit, leaving them navigating by senses and flashlights alone.

So instead, they rested. Some slept, others just sat quietly or talked together in hushed tones.

They did set up a guard, though. Cody set Drakken Squad to patrolling first, the nine troopers and their sergeant breaking into pairs to circle around the companies as they waited out the night.

It took almost no time into their rest for Obi-Wan to begin to doze, curled up as he was against the large rock at his back. Cody ended up at rest, leaning into the older man’s shoulder until it was time for the squads to switch out.

Obi-Wan’s eyes had just shut from checking the time at his wrist, 1732, when a shout pulled him to his feet. Cody was wide awake and on his feet just as fast, blaster up and ready to shoot. Sounds of blaster shots rang out through the dense air, accompanied by calls and yells from clones.

Every clone was rushing off to their right, blasters at the ready and helmets back on their heads.

The fight wasn’t far, but it was already over by the time Cody and Obi-Wan were arriving. A small grouping of broken droids lay scattered and sparking on the ground. A couple of the men lay in the dirt, nursing grazes and wounds from blaster shots.

They’d had one casualty.

The trooper lay on his back, a black and gray mark marring the white of his chest plate. A shiny. Another trooper knelt at his head, pulling the still new helmet of his fallen comrade.

Obi-Wan joined them.

“What’s your name?” he asked the trooper.

The man turned his eyes up to Obi-Wan. They were just as hazel brown as most of the clones’ eyes were, but his were ringed in red and getting teary.

“A-Arc, Sir…” His voice wobbled just a little bit.

“Okay, Arc. And what was his name?”

“This is Cap. He was my… my best friend. I told him I would watch while he slept for a while but- they just came out of nowhere. I didn’t see them…” The shiny swayed a little in his hunched over position, pulling Obi-Wan’s attention to the blood running down the man’s temple and ear.

“You’re going to be alright, Arc,” he said gently. He moved closer to the trooper, putting his hands on the man’s arm and shoulder, urging him carefully to sit steadily on the ground.

“Where’s Helix?” he asked Cody over his shoulder.

“Right here,” came the steady response of their head medic.

He took over from Obi-Wan. The Jedi stood, looking back to their fallen soldier.

An older trooper stepped up, yellow paint streaking down his arms and sides.

“Cap and Arc are some of mine, Sir. I’ll take care of them.”

Obi-Wan nodded at him absently.

“And what is your name, again?”

The man straightened to attention, and honestly even the sight of it made Obi-Wan tired, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. He could get Cody to drop the pretense often enough now, but hardly any of the other troopers. Obi-Wan was still the general, after all, and that demanded a certain level of respect and protocol, no matter how much he hated it.

“Shepherd, General Sir. I lead the War Dogs squad from Udesla.”

“Ah, yes.” He remembered this sergeant now. “You’re in the first session on Benduday. I sat down with you for individual squad time once. Though I don’t believe Arc and Cap were there that time.”

The look in Shepherds eyes betrayed how surprised he was that Obi-Wan had remembered them.

“No, Sir. They came in with the last group of shinies just last week.”

Obi-Wan hummed, pushing away the twinge of hurt that shot through his chest.

“I’m sorry, sergeant. It’s unfortunate to lose a brother, especially so soon.”

Shepherd nodded once in silent acknowledgement.

Obi-Win bid him good luck as he was pulled away to speak with Cody and a few other officers.

They couldn’t be sure, but this close to the foundry, it wouldn’t be unheard of for more patrols of droids to find them. It was not a pleasant thought. After some deliberation, they gathered the troops to fall back just one more klick, hoping to put more distance between themselves and any clankers that might wander upon them.

“Everyone get some rest before the sun comes back. If those droids are patrolling this far out, they’re guarding something big, and we’ll need to get used to this planet’s rotations. At first light, we set out for that foundry,” Obi-Wan instructed to those gathered around. There was a chorus of “yes sir”s and they left to return to their squads and platoons.

“Cody,” he started, grabbing his commander’s attention, “I hate to do this to you, but could ‘A’ Squad take first watch?”

Cody nodded dutifully, visibly steeling himself (once again) for the next couple hours of patrolling.

“Of course, Sir. I’ll send someone for you if we find anything out of the ordinary.”

“Good man,” he said.

Cody left without another word.

Obi-Wan, for his part, did not want to attempt to sleep again. He’d gotten nearly an hour and a half of an almost nap, and that would just have to do for a little while.

Instead, he found another good rock and settled himself upon it, criss crossing his legs and relaxing into the position to meditate.

The Force sang its mournful wailing at him all anew as he fell into the peace that mediation brought.

*

The night continued like that, Obi-Wan alternating between meditating, dozing, and doing some patrolling of his own as squads cycled in and out of the routine. No more groups of droids found them, a blessing Obi-Wan did not hesitate to thank the Force for.

But finally, the sun was back and the troops were forming up once again. Despite the fact that Obi-Wan’s internal clock was screaming that it was one in the morning and he should be asleep, they were off.

It was only an hour and a half of marching that brought them to a steep ridgeline. Most of the troops fell back, allowing Obi-Wan and Cody to venture closer, “A” Squad on their heels.

It wasn’t a ridgeline, so to speak, it was more like a cliff. Before them was a wide, almost circularly sort of canyon. On either side, it extended in narrower spaces, gouged out by water over the years. The canyon itself was deep, probably 500 feet or more.

But what caught their attention was down in the middle of the circular space. Placed directly overtop of the flowing river was the biggest Separatist droid foundry Obi-Wan had ever seen. It was bigger than the ones on Geonosis, all high walls and pillars of steam and smoke rising into Udo’s crystalline blue sky.

And if he thought the Force had been in mourning before, well… here it was just in pain. The planet itself was in physical pain from the foundry - the sheer size of it, the pollutants it was surely releasing into the air, the massive army of droids that stood in neat, uniform blocks surrounding the entire building.

Every inch of level ground down in the canyon was covered in droids. And looking up across the open space to the other cliffside told Obi-Wan all he needed to know about the patrols going on here. Look-out posts were built into the cliff faces, patrols of droids walking the edge of the canyon.

“Oh, you’ve _got_ to be kidding me…” Cody sighed next to him.

Obi-Wan hushed him quickly, eyes darting from side to side.

If there were droids patrolling the other edge of the ravine, then surely-

A mechanical voice cut its way through the air.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be here!”

“Run!” Obi-Wan called, turning with “A” Squad and booking it back to the rest of the troops.

His lightsaber ignited in his hand, flashing around him and deflecting bolts of red that streaks towards him and the squad. It hummed this way and that, moving nearly of its own accord just as it usually did, perfectly at home in Obi-Wan’s hand.

Several of the bolts reflected back at the droids, knocking them to the ground in showers of sparks. And sure, they could take a patrol of droids. But they certainly weren’t taking on a whole army of them by themselves. He had about 300 men with him. The droids likely numbered in the thousands.

Before he even knew what was happening, they were falling back, pursued by way too many droids for the whole army not to know they were there.

They would need to call for backup.

Obi-Wan found himself deflecting blaster bolts next to Boil. Perfect. He sent Boil off their front line to retreat a safe distance and send a transmission off to Coruscant, requesting aid from anyone available. The trooper nodded, disappearing between one shot of red and the next.

The rest of them held the line where they were, still in sight of the cliff edge, but steadily falling back a safe distance. There would be a lull in the droids every so often when one patrol was felled and they waited for the next to arrive. Bolts of blue shocked their way through the droids, dropping them to the ground in what was, ever so slowly, becoming a wall of broken metal. That might actually be an advantage to them.

They were still lying in wait for the next wave when Boil reappeared at Obi-Wan’s side.

“The transmission was received. General Skywalker and the 501st are the closest and should be here by first light tomorrow morning,” the man reported.

“Thank you, Boil,” he said.

Fifteen, sixteen hours at most? They could hold that long.

Obi-Wan turned, looking around at his troops. They all seemed to be doing well for the moment. They all knew how to handle themselves around clankers. It wasn’t new by any means. There seemed to be a few injuries but the medics were attending them and right off the bat, Obi-Wan couldn’t see any permanently downed men.

Yes, they could hold out that long.

*

They settled into a rotation. A third or so of the men stayed at their newly defined front long and took out the waves of droids as they came while the rest of them fell back several hundred yards and formed up an almost-base camp. They didn’t dare set up any tents just in case that they started losing ground rapidly. It never came to that, thankfully, but fourteen hours later, it was dark and they all needed a little bit of rest.

The Force was still crying out to Obi-Wan from all sides and it beginning to become just a hair distracting.

As soon as the 501st arrived, they could start to get this show on the road. The plan was for the 2nd Airborne Company to come down and join them in their fighters, helping take out the droids from above. Obi-Wan knew that he should want to get into the foundry, find whatever information they can about other bases and foundries throughout the galaxy… But the sheer size of the place and its number of droids… Bombing the thing and straight up destroying it would prove a lot easier in the long run.

But thankfully, the 501st Legion was significantly larger than the 212th Battalion. About sixteen times larger, to be honest.

In the dark of night, anything could happen. And something did.

An explosion rocked the relatively quiet atmosphere. Obi-Wan was immediately on his feet and sprinting for the battle, followed by Force only knew how many men. A lot of them.

There were no active droids when Obi-Wan skidded to a halt at Cody’s side. But the other thing he saw were the lifeless bodies of at least twelve or more clones. Echoes of near identical screams rippled through the Force, battering over the Jedi’s already frayed nerves. They were gone just like that, but the lingering loss of life and his own troops was not boding well for morale.

“What happened?” he whispered to Cody, unable to lift his voice higher.

“One of the clankers just… it self-destructed and threw itself at them.” Cody shook his head, obviously forcing himself back into his commander mindset. “We won’t be letting that happen again.”

Mechanical stomps off to their left drew their attention.

“Clankers!” a voice yelled somewhere in the fray.

“Foxtrot!” one of their lieutenants called to his platoon. “Take ‘em out!”

Blue bolts lit the dark before red could, taking out battle droids left and right. This wave was larger than the previous ones had been and they were advancing quickly.

Obi-Wan felt a nervousness building in his limbs. They needed this to be over.

Calm and peace washed over him suddenly, a plastoid-alloy armored body pressing in close to his side.

“General-”

The Jedi extended his hands outwards, eyes closing; focussing and channeling himself, reaching out for the Force to help him. He imagined the droids lifting into the air, crunching together before being pushed away and flying off into the night.

His eyes opened with a determined glint at the sound of groaning metal. He crushed them and tossed the droids away from his men just as he’d imagined.

Once they were no longer in his grip, Obi-Wan felt himself center back into his body, lowering his hands and releasing the scowl from his face. Mostly.

The troops rotated out again, those injured being helped back to the medics to be treated. Obi-Wan stayed longer, pushing over droids and deflecting bolts, jumping and twisting and hopping around to slice them with the blade of his saber.

*

The sky was just beginning to lighten when the telltale sound of engines whistled across the sky. Obi-Wan watched, a relieved almost-smile growing on his face, as the 2nd Airborne Company appeared from the dark, blasting at droids and heading towards the foundry. Right behind them were at least twice as many fighters from the 501st.

The comm on his wrist chimed at him.

_“Shoulda called us in sooner, General,”_ Red Leader said through the mic.

“Wouldn’t have been worth it, Sergeant,” he sassed back.

_“Whatever you say.”_

Transports swooped down from the sky, dropping squads and platoons in waves to join the 212th.

Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex were on Obi-Wan and Cody in a heartbeat.

“I told you something felt fishy about this mission,” Anakin said, a shit eating grin splitting his still young features.

“Yes, yes,” Obi-Wan agreed dismissively. “You did. But you’re here now, and that’s what matters.”

His former padawan’s blue eyes raked over him, taking in the dirt and sweat and torn tunics.

“You’ve looked better,” he said.

“I’ve also looked worse,” Obi-Wan countered.

Anakin shook his head. He put a hand on Obi-Wan’s shoulder, turning him away from the foundry and nudging him back towards the rest of the troops.

“We’re here, we’ll take over for awhile. You and your men could use a bit of a rest.”

“I’m fine, Anakin-”

“I’m not arguing with you, got it?” the young man said, his tone stern as if he was the master. “Go take a nap or something. Probably get that cut on your face looked at, too.”

Cut? When had he gotten a cut on his- He lifted a hand to brush at his cheekbone, wincing at the drag of his glove on open flesh. His fingers came away tacky with drying blood.

He shot a careful look at Anakin.

“Fine,” he conceded, “but just for a bit. Then we’re finishing this and getting out of here.”

“Yes, Master,” the brunette agreed easily. He turned then, Ahsoka on his heels. Rex clapped Cody on the shoulder, squeezing for just a moment, then turned and followed his general towards the fight.

Obi-Wan left as he’d been instructed, Cody following in step at his side.

The base camp was actually beginning to look like a base camp. A platoon of blue-painted 501st troopers had been left behind to set up tents. Men moved about the camp, tense and on edge. The medical tent had been the first to go up, housing the wounded who didn’t seem in any shape to be getting back into the fight any time soon. But they would make it. Thankfully it seemed most of the work their medics were doing was patching up cuts and blaster grazes.

Obi-Wan very nearly kept walking straight past the med tent. But then there were two hands on his shoulders, steering him ninety degrees to his right and straight through the open flaps of the tent.

“Helix,” Cody called over the general’s shoulder. “You busy at the moment?”

Helix stood straight from rummaging through a crate of supplies.

“Nope. What’s- ah,” the man sighed, his eyes falling on Obi-Wan’s face. “I see.”

He plucked a couple packages out of the crate and gestured for them to come closer around a few cots already set up.

“Come on over, General,” Helix said casually. “I’ll have you fixed up in just a second.”

It almost truly did take meer seconds. Blood was cleaned from the wound before a bacta patch was stuck over his cheek and voila, he was done. Cody, by some miracle, actually didn’t need anything looked over, so they thanked Helix and bid the others in the tent goodbye, heading out to find a quiet area for a nap.

*

It still took several rotations for the foundry to be totally taken care of. Once it was clear that with the help of the 501st, they would actually get some recon done, the decision was made to not just bomb the place to hell. By and large, they’d only been on the planet for a standard week, but already, the troops were ready to get back on their cruisers and leave this whole mess behind.

Some other poor battalion was likely to be stationed here later just to keep the Separatists from taking it back, but it certainly wouldn’t be the 212th.

The information they got was valuable, pointing towards several locations of interest. They were either more foundries or weapons depots. The Council will be glad to hear of them. The more they can cut off the other side’s resources, the sooner this war should be over.

It was the last night cycle they would spend on this planet. The 501st had lost quite a few men, though that was to be expected. Strangely enough, the 212th had come away mostly at full capacity. They were down a squad and a half now though, and Obi-Wan could feel the losses weighing heavily across his men and the planet’s surface.

All things considered, these were the highest casualty rates they’d seen in a month or more. The highest since Umbara.

They’d decided it would be easier to pack up and reload ships in the light of day, and together, the 501st and 212th milled about on the newly droid free planet.

Obi-Wan found Anakin and Ahsoka meditating together and sat, joining them. They weren’t deep yet, and after less than an hour, the three were surfacing again and blinking tired smiles at one another.

It didn’t take long after that for Cody and Rex to find them, also sitting down with their generals and commander. The conversation was pleasant and focused on anything but strategy. The holovid had been brought up again and Obi-Wan continued to not say anything about its creation. Rex had teased a red blush out of Cody, though, and proceeded to promise in person that there would be a retaliation.

“Just keep it civil, gentlemen,” Obi-Wan reminded them, his own shit eating grin glued firmly on his face.

“Yes, Sir,” the both chorused together.

A new presence approached from behind them - Crys, from the feel of him.

“General, Commander,” he greeted.

Obi-Wan turned with Cody to look at the man. His helmet was off, tucked under his arm into his side. His hair sat messily close to his skull, mattered down with dried sweat as it tended to get after a few days of being under a bucket near non stop.

“Some of the men wanted to know if it would be alright if we, uh…” his eyes flickered over Anakin and Ahsoka, faltering his words for a moment. “We wanted to sit and have a session while we’re here. It’s been awhile and they-we could… really use it, Sirs.”

Obi-Wan felt his expression soften at the trooper.

“You don’t ever have to ask permission for that, Crys. None of you do.” He stood, Cody following his lead. “Would like us to join you?”

“It would be appreciated. And,” he turned his eyes calmly to Anakin, “if anyone from the 501st would like to join, we’re happy to have them.”

A very real, very proud smile pulled its way onto Obi-Wan’s face.

“Thank you, Crys. We’ll join you all in a moment.”

“Yes, Sir.”

With that, the man turned on his heel and left.

Anakin cleared his throat rather pointedly.

“Alright, what was that? What’s a ‘session’?” the man asked, incredulous.

His former master directed a look at him again.

“Well, you did want to know what brought on the singing and dancing. If you’re interested, you’re about to find out. Tell your men they can join in, in the heart of camp. Just find a group wherever they’re comfortable. The 212th will show them what to do.” He watched as Anakin, still confused, pulled out his communicator and sent off the message to his troops.

This would be interesting, considering the size of the groups they had, but this would be rather informal. It would be alright. Besides, Obi-Wan wasn’t entirely certain how many would want to join with the limited details provided.

Less than half an hour later, Obi-Wan found himself sat between Cody and Anakin, Rex on Cody’s other side and Ahsoka by her master. They were in probably the largest ring of troops that had formed. This one seemed to be mostly Obi-Wan’s Centaxday groups. 212th gold intermingled with 501st blue more than he’d expected.

He started the session with a brief explanation for the newcomers.

“Welcome to what we have affectionately been calling ‘group therapy’,” he said, loud enough for them to hear. “I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the holovid of my, ahem, speech on Umbara. This was one of the results of that. We split into ten groups, and every evening, two of those groups meet for a session. We talk about whatever’s on our minds. It can be anything. Concerns, joys, new hobbies, new friends, names, the war, anything but the war… Anything. Tonight we’ll do it a little differently than we usually do on the Negotiator just because there’s so many of us, but it’ll still be the same. With that, you are free to break into groups if you wish and go ahead.”

Their ring of troopers slowly broke into their squads, or a couple squads together, incorporating the blue armored men with them as they went. Voices rose into the night, airing out anxieties and griefs, laughing over jokes, introducing themselves to brothers they’d never met before. He could feel the groups that had taken the most heavy losses, both talking and dancing around the subject of their fallen brothers. The Force swirled around them, unsettled.

“Come on,” he said to Anakin. “I usually walk around and check in on the groups, join in their conversations sometimes.”

They stood and picked their way carefully between groups of soldiers. He was keeping eyes out for the men from the 501st, watching as they were embraced by their comrades but mostly unsure about their place in this. But some were laughing with the others. And still some were being comforted by the brothers around them. It made Obi-Wan’s heart tug a little, but he smiled. Not because he had to, but because it was certainly a sight to see.

There was no way they could make it to every squad. It just wasn’t going to happen.

But as the time ticked away, as minutes turned to hours and the hours whiled away as they continued to talk, something was changing.

It was oh so subtle at first. Obi-Wan almost didn’t notice it. But the more the men talked, the more they laughed or cried or listened or expressed, the Force around them stilled. It quieted, settling from where it had once been agitated and upset. All the sadness, the pain, it lifted from the ground and into the air, dissipating around them like a soft breath of contentment. The Force, this _planet_ , was healing with them.

Their troops were healing the tragedies of this land, bringing peace and balance into the Force around them where before there had been none.

“Do you feel that, padawan?” he asked Anakin, feeling his eyes close gently.

Anakin didn’t even protest the incorrect title. “Yes, I do. The Force was in mourning before but now it’s like…”

“It’s healing,” Ahsoka sighed on a smile.

“Yes, little one. It is,” Obi-Wan agreed.

They continued milling about with the men, being pulled into one conversation or another. It was obvious how clammed up quite a few of the 501st troopers were. The majority of them weren’t in their element. This was new and they weren’t quite sure what to do with it. Though Obi-Wan did notice it was mostly the older men who were uncomfortable.

Between groups, Anakin glanced around and stopped Obi-Wan with a hand at his elbow.

“Master, this is…” he started. “It’s something else. It’s amazing, actually. How you got them all to be so at home with this, I don’t know.”

Obi-Wan smiled at his former apprentice. “Time and patience, padawan mine. Exactly how I got you to start meditating at all.”

Anakin huffed a vaguely disgruntled laugh.

“I’m not sure I could get my troops to respond like this,” the young man admitted. “It takes a certain type of confidence that has very little to do with fighting or battle.”

The older Jedi hummed, looking out across their combined legion and battalion.

“This is true. But you should know better than anyone, Anakin. The best confidence builder is experience.” He smiled at the man and then down at Ahsoka, still at their sides. He continued walking. “Give them time to warm up to it, and I think they’ll take to the practice just fine.”

Group therapy did not last two hours that night. The men talked and talked and talked until they were either asleep on one another, or it was time to get up and pack up the camp. The transports from the cruisers swooped down for them just before sunrise, taking the crates and the troopers back up to their ships in turns.

Their fallen brothers were buried and some words were said by those they’d been closest with.

Just before they stepped onto their respective transports, Anakin grabbed his master’s arm again.

“You’re sure about all this? The group therapy, the hobbies, the stuff about the Force and being a good Jedi?” His eyes were wide and vulnerable, pleading in a way Obi-Wan hadn’t seen them since Anakin was young.

He returned the look with a gentle smile, clasping his hand on Anakin’s in return.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

“And,” Anakin swallowed, “do you think I could-?”

“I know you can, Ani. You’re my brother and one of my best friends. If you want to succeed as a Jedi this way, then you are welcome to join me. I would never turn down your company.”

Anakin watched him, studying his eyes a moment. Then he nodded firmly.

“I do.”

Obi-Wan gave a nod of his own, squeezing Anakin’s arm reassuringly.

Cody called to him from the transport. They were just waiting on the generals.

“We’ll talk soon, Anakin,” he said, stepping away. “I promise.”

“Yes, Master.” Anakin smiled, stepping onto his own transport with Rex and the last stragglers of the 501st.

The doors of the ship closed behind Obi-Wan.

On the _Negotiator_ , he smiled down at Udo from the view on the bridge. They were leaving it a little lighter, a little less broken, and Obi-Wan could be proud of that. He thought briefly that perhaps these changes were a long time coming, and that he and Anakin would be better off with them in the long run. And perhaps, if the Council wasn’t too miffed when they found out, they’d all turn out a little better for it, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this story. I would love to hear what you thought about it. If you have any thoughts or ideas for things that can happen in this series, feel free to leave them in a comment or you can hit me up in an email at robinplaystrumpet15@gmail.com . Thanks again, guys!
> 
> Edit: Hi! I made a blog for this series! If you're interested, you can [find it here](https://obiwanthetherapistkenobi.tumblr.com/). Come say hi if you want!


End file.
